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This collection contains correspondence,
financial and legal documents, ledgers, inventories, estate records, ephemera, books, and
journals pertaining to the business transactions, family relationships and the estates of
Augustus Hemenway, his wife, Mary Tileston Hemenway, and various other family members.

Collection Number:

MH
122

Series List

SERIES I. Augustus Hemenway

A. Personal Correspondence

B. Business Papers

1. Correspondence

2. Legal Papers

C. Other

D. Estate and Trustees Papers

SERIES II. Mary Tileston Hemenway

A. Correspondence

B. Other

C. Estate and Trustees Papers

SERIES III. Hemenway Family

A. Sarah Hemenway

B. Charles P. Hemenway

C. Augustus Hemenway, Jr.

SERIES IV. Frederic A. EustisSERIES V. Family Genealogies

A. Hemenway Family

B. Tileston Family

C. Eustis Family

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains correspondence,
financial and legal documents, ledgers, inventories, estate records, ephemera, books, and
journals pertaining to the business transactions, family relationships and the estates of
Augustus Hemenway, his wife, Mary Tileston Hemenway, and various other family members. Their
biographer and extended family member, Frederic A. Eustis, compiled these materials in his
research. As one of the foremost "merchant princes" in the 19th century, Augustus Hemenway's
business dealings in Chile, Cuba, Maine, New York, and Boston are extensively documented. Also
of note is the detailed personal correspondence between Augustus and Mary Tileston Hemenway
during their courtship in 1838-1839. Mary Tileston Hemenway's philanthropic, business, and
cultural activities are described in correspondence, business records, and records of her
estate. There are many original letters from her wide circle of literary, artistic, and civic
connections such as Dorothea Dix, Booker T. Washington, Lucy Larcom, Childe Hassam, Sophia and
Una Hawthorne, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Lucy Stone. Eustis' notes, drafts, and papers,
acquired during his research and writing of Mr. Hemenway's biography, are extensive, and include
original documents provided by Hemenway family members. The collection is organized into five
series.

Biographical Sketches

Augustus Hemenway (1805-1876) was born on April 25, 1805 in Salem,
Massachusetts and died at Sagua La Grande, Cuba, on June 16, 1876. He was a prominent business
man, and was considered at one point to be the wealthiest man in America, with extensive
business interests in commercial and residential real estate in New York and Boston, lumber in
Maine, copper and other mining developments in Chile, and a sugar plantation in Cuba.

His wife, Mary Tileston Hemenway (1820-1894), was born on
December 20, 1820 in New York and died on March 6, 1894 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was
involved in the literary, artistic, and civic movements of her time. A well-known
philanthropist, she worked with and financially supported organizations and individuals in the
anti-slavery, suffragette, immigrant education, women's physical education, historical
preservation, and Native American cultural preservation movements. She financed the 1886-1894
Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition.

Sarah "Sally" Upton Hemenway (1787-1865), was born in Groton, Massachusetts on February 19, 1787
and died in Machias, Maine, on November 16, 1865. She married Dr. Samuel Hemenway in 1803, and
mothered five children, including Augustus Hemenway. After separating from her husband and
losing her home and property, she and her children lived with various family members and in the
poorhouse for a period in 1818. Through supporting herself and her children, and entering trade
with Augustus' help, she was a powerful influence on Augustus' development.

Charles P. Hemenway (1818-1893) was the youngest of Sarah and
Dr. Samuel Hemenway's children. He worked as a manager for Hemenway and Company in Valparaiso,
Chile from 1848-1859, and later as a partner for the company in Boston. During Augustus' illness
from 1860-1873, Charles was given power of attorney for the business for many years.

Augustus Hemenway Jr. (1853-1931) was the only son of Augustus
and Mary Hemenway. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and continued his
family's philanthropy, supporting institutions, which included Harvard University, MIT, and the
Museum of Fine Arts. He also supported the Metropolitan Parks Commission, which created Revere
Beach Reservation, the Trustees of Reservations, and worked with notables such as Frederick Law
Olmstead. In addition, he subsidized an archaeological expedition to Arizona in 1913-14, which
explored Mesa Verde, among other sites.

Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in Philcat.
Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the
catalog using these headings.

Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 1802-1887

Eustis, Frederic A., b. 1877

Hassam, Childe, 1859-1935

Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody, 1809-1871

Hemenway, Augustus, 1805-1876

Hemenway, Augustus, Jr., 1853-1931

Hemenway, Charles P., 1818-1893

Hemenway, Mary, 1820-1894

Hemenway, Sarah Upton, 1787-1865

Larcom, Lucy, 1824-1893

Muller, William

Stone, Lucy, 1818-1893

Tileston, Thomas

Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915

Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892

Boston Normal School

George W. Bangs and Company

Old South Meeting House (Boston, Mass.)

Southwest Indian Expedition

Decedents' estates

Deeds

Genealogy

Indians of North America

Inventories

Obituaries

Philanthropists

Photographs

Wills

Boston (Mass.)

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Copyright

Requests for permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing
to the Manuscript Librarian in the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Preferred Citation

Provenance

This material was donated on May 3, 1963, by the children of Frederic A. Eustis (accession #
16,191).

Processing Information

Collection processed by Elaine McGrath, December 2010.

Related Material

Eustis, Frederic A. Augustus Hemenway 1805-1876 Builder of the United
States Trade with the West Coast of South America. Salem: Peabody Museum, 1955.

Hinsley, Curtis M., and David R. Wilcox, eds. Frank Hamilton
Cushing and the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition, 1886-1889, Vol. I: The
Southwest in the American Imagination: The Writings of Sylvester Baxter, 1881-1889.
Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1996.

The Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

Description

This collection contains correspondence, financial and legal documents, ledgers, inventories, estate records, ephemera, books, and journals pertaining to the business transactions, family relationships and the estates of Augustus Hemenway, his wife, Mary Tileston Hemenway, and various other family members.